White Fence Dream

Chapter 165 Waiting

The lanterns in front of me were still shining, and the sound of drums rang out in the Linde Hall. That was the most popular encouragement today, and the laughter was even louder amid the drumbeats.

But, something was wrong.

On the top of the East Pavilion, Shangguan Yue frowned.

In the name of watching the lanterns and in the name of Princess Jin Yu, he stood on the top of the East Pavilion. As expected, no one dared to touch him. He could wait as Bai Li said.

He actually didn't know how long he would have to wait.

Bai Li only told him: "When I call you, throw it down."

Shangguan Yue put her hand on her chest.

At that time, Bai Li took out a box and handed it to him: "It can save my life."

He opened it carefully and saw that it was a lotus root.

Shangguan Yue couldn't help laughing when he thought of this. He also laughed at that time. He thought, she needed a lotus root to save her life, and he was not as good as a lotus root...

"No, it's because of you that lotus root can save my life." Bai Li said.

As she spoke, she stood on tiptoe and patted his shoulder.

"Without you, this lotus root can't even be made into a dish."

Shangguan Yue laughed again, this time happily.

But then the smile faded again.

But what if he can't wait?

He discovered that even though she was a ghost, she could still encounter danger.

And more than once.

Shangguan Yue looked around, her vision became frozen, the lanterns, the lights, the human figures, all became blurry.

It’s okay if it’s blurry, he may be tired or sleepy, or the lights may be too bright.

Many people began to move in the blurred vision.

It’s not surprising to see people walking around, as many people were walking outside watching the lanterns.

But that's not right.

Something is wrong!

Shangguan Yue looked down at her feet. The eunuchs who had been guarding here were also walking away. They had strange smiles on their faces. Although they were walking, their hands and feet looked stiff, as if they were being led by someone...

Shangguan Yue looked around and saw other people doing the same, men and women, with the Linde Hall as the boundary.

There was singing, dancing and feasting in the hall as usual, and outside the hall everyone, including the guards, was walking around.

Go in one direction.

Shangguan Yue raised her head and looked towards Jie Lin Building.

Go quickly, go and have a look, something must have happened.

There was a voice shouting in his ear, and it seemed like something was pulling him. He wanted to jump down and follow.

But Bai Li told him to wait.

Shangguan Yue held the lotus root in her arms, her eyes fixed on Jielin Tower, her body straightened, as if she had merged into one with the stone pavilion, and she did not move at all.

……

……

Outside the capital, at Shengzu Temple, there are no lanterns to decorate the place, nor is there the noise of a festival. The night is shrouded in darkness, the Taoists have all fallen asleep, and only the lights in the main hall are bright.

A young Taoist priest leaned against the pillar and yawned. A candle flame jumped in his sight, and then gray smoke rose.

He forced himself to open his eyes and put a new candle on the stove.

I can hold on for a while, take a nap.

"Why hasn't Wang Tong come back yet?" he muttered, "He's enjoying himself out there."

Although he was a young Taoist priest doing odd jobs like Wang Tong, they were different. He was chosen by the master, while Wang Tong paid to come in, so he should do more work.

But there is no way now. Wang Tong is not here, so he has to do the hard work.

He was just about to close his eyes and take a nap when someone walked in. It was the middle of the night and he was so scared that he screamed, then he looked closely at who it was.

"Ancestor, why did you wake up?" he asked with a sigh of relief.

Xuan Yangzi looked at the statue in front of him, with a helpless look on his face: "I was woken up."

Noisy? The young Taoist looked outside. The city might still be bustling, but the bustle could not reach them. Everything around them was quiet.

"His mind is not scattered, his thoughts are not scattered, and he is making trouble in the world." Xuan Yangzi said, taking a step forward and stretching out his hand.

The young Taoist priest felt his eyes blurred and saw Xuan Yangzi, who seldom moved and fell asleep all the time, climbing onto the statue of the Three Pure Ones.

He shouted and opened his arms in panic to protect his ancestor, hoping he would not fall to his death!
Just as he took a step, he blinked and looked again, Xuan Yangzi was still standing there, but with an extra gem in his hand.

That is the Hunyuan Pearl in the hands of the statue of Yuanshi Tianzun.

Was he dazzled, or did the ancestor really jump up and get the Hunyuan Pearl?

The young Taoist priest was stunned when he saw Xuan Yangzi turn around and walk out of the temple gate, throwing the precious orb in his hand into the air.

A moon suddenly appeared in the dark night sky.

The next moment, the young Taoist felt his eyes go dark, as if his vision was swallowed by a precious orb, or perhaps his entire consciousness disappeared.

……

……

People drawn by the spider silk rushed into the Jielin Building.

The building was still shaking and cracking, but spider silk appeared from all directions, holding up the stairs and patching up the cracks.

The first few people who climbed up the stairs opened their hands and stretched them towards Di Zhong.

The four words "Tao follows nature" shone brightly, and these people dispersed like mud and sand.

But then more people climbed up, layer after layer, and the mud and sand gradually filled the room. Wang Degui, who was lying on the ground, the guards, and even Bai Ying, who was pregnant, stood up, stepped on the mud and sand with a dazed look, and walked towards the Emperor Bell.

Shen Qing plucked the strings of the zither with his ten fingers, and more men and women were drawn to the Jie Lin Building, and turned into layers of mud and sand under the law of nature.

Bai Ying stepped on the increasingly high mud and sand, getting closer and closer to the Imperial Bell.

The four characters "Taoism, nature" were suspended in the air, shining like sharp blades, falling layer by layer, turning the people rushing in into mud and sand.

But to Bai Ying, it was like a veil of mist or a gentle hand, brushing gently over her body without any effect.

The person suspended in the air by the spider silk smiled. The cracks on his face had spread to his neck, and his clothes were also torn into pieces, but they were held together by layers of spider silk.

"Xuan Yangzi, you are so narrow-minded that you only have one person in your eyes." She laughed and said, "Then let the person you are protecting destroy you."

Hearing her laughter, Shen Qing, who was playing the piano in the distance, also laughed. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and a tiny light lit up in the dark night sky.

The light grew brighter and brighter, instantly engulfing the night sky.

The sky was blazing white, and the light turned into a dark hole.

Shen Qing's face changed drastically.

"Millet beads--" he blurted out.

At the same time, the people under the shining words "Tao follows nature" no longer turned into mud and sand, but layers of human figures continued to float up from their bodies and were sucked into the dark light hole in the sky until they disappeared. The spider silk that no figure could tie them to was flying all over the sky. "This is the millet bead." She looked up while being entangled by spider silk and hung in the Jielin Building, with a smile on her lips, "With the supreme heart of Tao, everything can be tolerated."

As she spoke, she began to float up, and fortunately she was pulled up by more spider silk.

"My lady, please get out of the way first - I'll wrap it up."

Shen Qing shouted and stood up. The guqin that was originally lying flat stood up, and the spider silk in front of him also rose up and split into three.

A part of it was still involving people climbing up the Jielin Tower, and turned into mud and sand under the law of nature, supporting Bai Ying who was trying to reach out to the Emperor Bell with a dull smile on his face.

Some of them flew towards the millet beads and formed a big net in the air to cover the black hole.

The other part, still wrapped around the person hanging in the air, suddenly sank and the person fell towards the crack.

……

……

The quiet pond water was like a stone thrown into it, causing ripples.

Zhuang Li, who was sinking to the bottom of the pool, had her hair and dress flying in the water like mist and gauze. Her mouth and nose were washed by the water and became a little blurry. Only her eyes were still clear.

Keep your eyes fixed upwards.

The wellhead was far away and getting smaller and smaller.

This shows that her eyes are also distracted.

In fact, the pond water was not quiet either. Countless sounds echoed along with the water flow, including her father's voice, her brothers' laughter, the wind from the mountains, and the neighing of horses, as if urging her to respond.

She couldn't answer. Those were all fake, dead, past, and no longer existed. She was real and still alive. If she agreed, she would no longer be able to distinguish between reality and illusion.

Although her eyes were unfocused, she never shifted her gaze and only looked at the wellhead.

There was a bang, as if a stone fell into the water.

Zhuang Li's scattered vision focused and he saw ripples on the water, a person sinking, and in the blink of an eye the person was in front of him.

The well mouth turned into a mirror again. She looked at the person in the mirror, face to face with herself.

Spider silk fell from the well and entangled her hands, feet and body. Just as the spider silk was about to pull her upwards, Zhuang Li, whose hands and feet were originally floating powerlessly, suddenly hugged the person who was close to her.

The figures were spinning, and this time no one was sinking, but two figures intertwined and went upwards.

With a splash, the man jumped out of the well.

Zhuang Li suddenly raised his head, moved his eyes away from the ruby ​​ring on his hand, and took a deep breath.

The blurry vision gradually became clear, and the scene before my eyes was even more bizarre than the scene at the bottom of the pool.

Black earth, white sky, shaking and broken buildings entangled by spider webs, men and women who kept climbing up the stairs and then turned into mud and sand.

There is the shaking imperial bell, a black hole suspended in the air, and the sound of piano and spider silk filling the sky.

The Taoism magic on this side naturally shattered the oncoming human figure, and on the other side, a large spider silk web tried to cover the black hole to prevent everything from being sucked in.

"It's so lively." Zhuang Li murmured.

"You——" Shen Qing's voice came from a distance.

Zhuang Li turned his head and looked at him.

Under the scorching white sky, on the inky black ground, there stood a man.

It was not just a pair of eyes that I had seen before, nor was it the blurry face I saw through the mirror in Shangguan Yue’s dream. This time the person was clearly visible.

He had a gaunt face, a beautiful beard, a zither in his arms, and wore a white robe, with an elegant demeanor.

But at this moment, his face was filled with shock, which ruined his elegant demeanor.

Zhuang Li smiled: "Shen Qing, I finally see you."

She looked happy, as if she were meeting an old friend again.

Shen Qing was not happy, but surprised. He did not look at her, but looked behind her: "Madam..."

Hearing his words, Zhuang Li cooperated by turning his body and exposing his back.

There was a person attached to his back.

In other words, she merged with this person's body.

This posture suddenly appeared, and the world before my eyes became even more weird.

"This is your queen." Zhuang Li's expression was still relaxed. He tilted his head over his shoulder, as if he wanted to say hello to the person behind him.

It’s a pity that no one can see their own back.

The woman behind him lowered her head and was silent. Compared to Zhuang Li, who had bright eyes and was full of energy, she was like a lifeless vine.

In front of the awakened subject, the queen was indeed attached to the vine, and she actually wrapped up the queen's consciousness again, just like before - Shen Qing gritted his teeth and shouted: "Let go of the queen!"

Perhaps because of the shock and distraction, the spider silk that was originally pulling him became loose, and the body of Zhuang Li that was entangled around it flew towards the black hole in the sky again.

Shen Qing came to his senses and tightened the spider silk.

The catamaran stopped rising.

Zhuang Li looked at him and smiled: "I dare not let her go. If I let her go, will you still hold my hand? I will definitely be scared by this thing——"

She raised her arm entangled in spider silk and pointed at the black hole of beads in the sky.

"Suck it in."

She looked around again. Even though there was a large spider web blocking the way, many figures were still sucked in.

They rose from the ground, breaking away and dissipating layer by layer.

"Those people you pulled into your dream had their nightmare-like consciousness sucked in. When they woke up, the experience was over and had no impact at all. But it's different for me. If I were sucked in, I would never wake up again."

She looked at Shen Qing again, her eyes dim and seemingly pleading.

"You have to hold me tight, or your queen and I will disappear."

Shen Qing's eyes were cold and his sight finally fell on Zhuang Li's face. He took a deep breath and changed his voice to a soft one: "Bai Li, you take the queen to sleep now, I will deal with this, and I can guarantee that Bai Ying can't hurt you."

Zhuang Li looked at him and shook his head slowly.

"No," she said, "I came here just to see you, and now that I finally see you, I can't go to sleep."

To see him? Shen Qing was slightly stunned. What do you mean to see him? Isn't it to see Bai Ying?

He was about to say something when his eyes suddenly focused and he saw Zhuang Li entangled in spider silk. He raised his hand and a long knife appeared in his hand.

Under the white night sky, the long sword emitted a faint light.

"What do you want to do!" Shen Qing shouted and plucked the strings of the guitar in his hand.

The spider silk pulling on Zhuang Li suddenly tightened, and Zhuang Li's raised hand was pulled down.

But he still held the long sword tightly in his hand.

The spider silk was trembling as it was pulled, and Zhuang Li slowly raised his hand again, turned his wrist, and placed the tip of the long knife against his shoulder.

"What do I want to do?" she said, smiling. "Tear it down, of course."

As she spoke, she pushed hard, and the long knife pierced through the spider silk wrapped around her shoulders and stabbed into her back.

Spider silk and blood splattered instantly.

"Do not--"